In this interview feature, we get to know the most radicalist up & coming stars on the planet.  

This time we enter the private space of DIY indie-pop duo Majik, the project of long-term friends Jamie Mac and Marcus Fowler.

On the surface it would appear that the music of Majik spans around a year, but in reality this pair were brought together in providential circumstance when they found themselves sharing a room at university. Although from different backgrounds - with Jamie being a college-trained musician and Logic expert from Ayrshire, Scotland and Marcus being an emotion-driven poet-turned-lyricist and singer from Marlow, England - the pair found common ground in music. It’s within that space of pressure-free creative expression that the pair first kindled an atmospheric electro-pop sound that would later become their signature.

However, the journey to their current output hasn’t been totally straightforward as it took leaving university and taking time away from the project that would bring them back together in London. With a new name, Majik, and intensified energy, the pair took to makeshift studios, bedroom sessions and laptop production systems to make tracks that are in equal parts soulful and scientific.

As already mentioned, it was only a year ago that we were introduced to their reassuring, carefully-arranged style with debut song 'It's Alright'. Since then Majik have released three more tracks ‘Save Me’, 'Closer' and ‘Real’ - each becoming richer and more clearly defined than the last. Most telling of all is that Majik have now been recognised as the Best Electronic Act at this year’s Unsigned Music Awards.

Here we have the opportunity to ask Marcus Fowler a few questions about what this past year has been like and how the two evolved into Majik as we know them.

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TMR: First of all, congratulations on winning the Best Electronic Act at the UMAs! Could you have predicted such an achievement when Majik first got together two years ago?

Marcus Fowler: Thanks. To be honest when we first sat down under our new alias "Majik" everything that followed was unexpected – this award really marked the two year chapter and was a great event to be part of.

TMR: Of course, your friendship stretches back further than that to your university days, what has changed for you both since then?

MF: I met Jamie as he was finishing his studies at music college whilst I had left my degree to pursue music fully. Since we left that era we have been able to apply life and structured lessons to our writing and it has opened the doors to the ever illusive world of music. We have committed, alongside work, to our project with no boundaries. It's great to be fully involved with something we love that we can see shaping our future.

TMR: Do you think it’s the post-university existence and living in London that inspired you to seek each other out again and to start making music?

MF: 100% - the nature of music is free-spirited and only once we had reflected all options and felt ready did we embark on this journey. It's good to take time away and allow nature to take over - that’s what brought us back together.



TMR: The first we heard from Majik was ‘It’s Alright’, a minimalist piece of reassurance in uncertain times. What does that initial release mean to you? Has that interpretation changed since you first released it a year ago?

MF: This track was really our birthmark and the songs background hasn’t changed since the day we wrote it as it came from a time and place that this song captures. It's a window into a time gone by that we are happy to share in new horizons.

TMR: After that came ‘Save Me’, which we had to wait seven months for, but it’s clear you guys had been busy hiking up gears on all fronts - melodies, production, lyrics. What had been happening in those preceding months?

MF: Well, we hit the bedroom studio and started working on lyrics and sounds. It all starts small and that song came from a few sessions together and alone. Sometimes we take ourselves on different journeys and if we come back with a great feeling we join the dots. Experimenting on all fronts is how we come up with our next release.



TMR: Many reviewers have remarked on the pure empathy that your music stirs up, is that something you set out to do or is it a by-product of making sounds you love?

MF: It's great that it comes across in that way – empathy and reality are key elements to our songs and music. It is not something we intentionally do more just where our music stems from. The inner sentiment is our fuel alongside our science.

TMR: Reportedly, much of that sound comes from working with DAW of choice Logic, how do you think these readily available laptop studios are shaping the music we hear now?

MF: The great side of this is how close you can be to the studio at all times, not to mention the possibilities Logic can give you sound wise. It's great to take a sound, flip it upside-down and look how things turn out. Certainly it will shape and change the music we hear and it's great to see so many new producers making such amazing music brewed in just a bedroom studio.

TMR: It’s obvious that you’ve both found common ground in Majik, but what’s the biggest difference between the two of you? Perhaps it’s music taste, your approach to rehearsing/recording, your musical backgrounds?

MF: I think the fact we are such contrasting personalities with different roots in musical expression results in the harmony you hear. I grew up listening to a lot of spoken word/rap which always encouraged harnessing real feelings. Jamie has been able to train his ears, master logic and expression through sound – it’s simple really, we just meet in the middle.



TMR: The latest track we’ve heard from you is ‘Real’, probably your most intricate and introspective song to date. What was the motivation behind this one?

MF: Essentially we just wrote the song in our normal way and allowed it to be more open as we emerge into our scene. All the songs come from experience and this one is not dissimilar perhaps it is perceived in the way you hear it but behind the scenes there are less obvious underlying concepts.

TMR: You're about to head back out on the road for a European tour with Eden, what can gig goers expect from a Majik live set?

MF: You can expect a lot of emotion driven out over our heavy electronic set up. We have been working on some surprises for our tour with Eden with a lot of unheard songs we hope people are going to be into. We can't wait!

-Hannah Thacker